


Blowing Off Steam

by Name1



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, S1, Smut-ish, Sorgan, Wait What?, idiots to lovers, plus FEELS, supposedly casual sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-14
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:22:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27561448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Name1/pseuds/Name1
Summary: The one in which they try to keep things casual, but Din’s brain has other ideas.
Relationships: Cara Dune/The Mandalorian, Din Djarin & Cara Dune, Din Djarin/Cara Dune
Comments: 28
Kudos: 92





	Blowing Off Steam

**Author's Note:**

> I know what you’re thinking. Yes….it’s another Sorgan story. I only have like five of them :/ These two are just too obviously attracted to one another, I can’t be held responsible. Not really a plot to be found, just Din thinking….. no real smut either (just mentioned) so just pretend it’s really hot :D

Spotchka was flowing. He couldn't share a cup of the alcoholic drink with the townspeople around the fire, but Cara (his unexpected friend) had surprised him by presenting to him a cup of the drink she had snuck away from the village. She had told him it was for him to enjoy later when he could. It was surprisingly thoughtful and for all the villagers’ thanks and niceties, no one else had thought of it before now—no one but her. He snuck no more than fifty paces into the darkened woods before he let himself indulge in privacy with his helmet tucked under his arm. It was dry for his taste, but it made his head buzz pleasantly. It made him lower his inhibitions and he felt pleasantly intoxicated for the first time in a long time. Drinking it alone was alright, but he wished they could have shared it together. It was like _her_ \--strong, smooth, and would probably knock him on his ass if he overindulged. As his lips touched the rim of the cup for the last swig, he wondered if this could have been the same cup she drank from earlier.

She had said this festive atmosphere wasn't really her thing either and they had been loners together. Everyone else was enjoying themselves the night after they defended the village except for the two individuals responsible for the mission’s success. They'd proven a good deterrent from a second attack and without that walking armored gun, the raiders might not strike again for a while--he was glad. Just in case though, he and Cara might have to make a second sweep of what remained of their camp to take care of any stragglers stupid enough to bother the village again. Cara would be all too happy to sign up to fight beside him and there was the problem.

Cara. 

That damn woman who teased him and made him laugh; who had an endless repertoire of witty comebacks and innuendoes to keep him on his toes. It wasn't ike he trusted her with his life or anything..... He just met her. That was crazy. He liked her is all.

He goes over all the reasons in his head trying to make himself believe why it couldn't happen. 

  1. He might actually admit he more than likes her and it would ruin everything.
  2. It would complicate the easiest thing he'd come across in the second half of his adult life.
  3. It might become a habit. He could see himself growing addicted to being happy. Addicted to her.



Okay….. That didn’t sound bad at all. He was losing this battle even in his head. 

He goes over all the reasons in his head trying to make himself believe why it _could_ happen instead. Arguing against it was obviously in vain. 

  1. She didn't seem opposed to him getting close to her; she encouraged it even. 
  2. They're grown, they can do what they want.
  3. They've earned some time to unwind and relax. I was casual and no big deal. They’re just adults having fun. 



And even if he admitted he liked her a little bit, there's no reason he'd ever see her again....there'd be no strings attached, which didn't sound nearly as satisfying as he thought it would…. 

  1. They'll never see each other again. It’s a big galaxy
  2. As long as the helmet doesn't come off, they could probably just fool around some...again, harmless. 



Had he already come up with five reasons so quickly? His brain is making it sound so easy-- it short circuits around her for some reason, that’s the only explanation. He even flirted with her in a smelly pond and didn't even try to hide it. What the hell was she doing to him?

Her damn smart mouth too..... it makes him make stupid decisions when he had always been so level-headed. This was sounding like a more and more reasonable decision the more he thought about it. Just another step in the natural order of things…..

He focuses more on the evidence she might feel the same way. She always threw teasing jaunts his way...... She shies away from people if she can, but when she can’t, she always ends up beside him..... She's such a flirt, but she only does it around him, not the fifty other men in the village.... _Weird, to be sure, but not concrete enough to gamble everything on. What exactly was he waiting on? Her to say she wanted him in the middle of the day and start stripping off her clothes?_

If he were anyone else and she were anyone else, he'd assume the flirtatious banter they tossed back and forth were borderline sexual advances, but maybe he was reading too much into it; she's probably not interested in him, he thinks. There's only one way to tell--maybe he could push back a little, just once to see where it goes. She'll definitely turn him away, he's sure of it ....

On second thought, they’d blown off steam every other way, what's one more? Right?

They often worked off nervous energy with games and competitions that left him feeling much younger and full of life than he had in years. Competitive challenges and races to prove who would come out on top in x,y, or z filled their down time lately and he found himself looking forward to what ridiculous challenge they'd come up with next that she wanted to win. Maybe that was a bad description, he admits with an internal groan. Her scrambling on top of him wasn’t something he needed to think about when he was trying to think of reasons to keep his distance. Strangely, there was never really a winner or loser in their games, just a good time had by both and bragging rights for several hours. They were remarkably well matched it seemed. He can easily see how fierce a dropper she must have been. They tried to douse that fire in their blood from a good fight with friendly sparring, but even that was so heated and overtly sexual at times he wondered if it was all in his head. Was he reading too much into the way he thought she looked at him sometimes too? The way she seemed to open up to him? The way he opened up himself so easily to her in return and had gotten things off his chest he’d never really spoken of before around anyone else?

He'd been convincing himself to forget about it; to stop fantasizing in broad daylight, but maybe the exact opposite was the solution. Maybe they could simply see what happened.

 _It was decided then._ The next time she made any kind of offering teasing comment he'd call her on her bluff and see what happened. She seemed pretty good at cards, but so was he. Good thing he didn't have to wait very long to find out......

..............................

It had been such a long day following their second sweep of the camp. They were both tired, but in the adrenaline-fueled insomnia kind of way. They couldn't sleep last night either, so they stayed up shooting the shit and just being in each other's company. He knew they'd likely crash later but it was nice to be tired together and maybe even drift off under the same tree later. Today they'd started the breakdown of the enemy camp and it had been backbreaking work. Neither one of them wanted to back down first so they'd kept pushing until they were about to drop.

She'd suggested a friendly tussle at the end of the day when they were finally making their way back to their lodging. The woods were dark, but the full moon provided just enough light to navigate by. It shone off their armor and the dewy vegetation at their feet. The night always felt different here--richer, almost.

“Why do you want to fight?” he asks her, as his muscles are already screaming at him. “Aren't you tired?”

“I'm tired, yeah, but still full of pent up energy,” she explains.

“And you think fighting will help?” he asked.

“Look,” she tells him, as she stops so abruptly that he almost walks into her. “I either want to fight or fuck, and I don’t think I’m quite your type, so the first one seemed like a safe bet.”

“Wait, what?” _Had she hit her head?_ How could she possibly think she wasn’t his type. She must have heard the genuine surprise in his voice.

“I hate to break it to you or ruin the surprise, but I’m not a Mandalorian,” she says, as if that explains everything.

“That’s not how attraction works,” he argues. “You don’t have to be attracted to someone similar to you.”

“So, what _is_ your type then?” she asks, with her arms crossed. She leans back against the closest tree trunk and waits. 

He laughed at the stubborn look on her face. He wanted to say, ' _you are_ ' because it was the truth. He takes a step closer to her so he doesn't have to raise his voice. He thinks of a safer yet honest answer. "Someone who’s strong, resilient, honest, honorable, independent, can knock me to the ground and make my ears ring."

"So, I’m guessing it’s not someone like that woman in the village,” she hedges, with a growing smirk.

He chuckled. "Certainly not." She pulled on his hips playfully, apparently pleased with his answer.

“Not my type either,” she states. He can hear the amusement in her voice as she continues. "Too bad you don’t know anyone who has those traits you like." He can see her teeth in the moonlight where she bites the edge of her lower lip in that damn smirk he’s sees even after he closes his eyes.

"I might,” he admits, uncharacteristically playful in return, “but she’s far too humble to brag."

She laughs freely now and it fills up the darkness so it doesn’t even feel like night anymore. He feels his body relax into hers. Chest to knees they’re pressed together. Even through two separate levels of armor the contact still burns him every square inch they're touching. He knows she can feel every inch of him too.

She reaches down and curls her hand around the growing evidence he wants her, making him moan. “Enough talk. I’m too worked up. You want to screw around or what?”

He wanted to say out loud that the helmet couldn’t come off, but it seemed ridiculous at this point. Cara wouldn’t try to get him to take it off.

In lieu of an explanation about his face remaining covered, he only managed one word instead. "Yeah."

Everything happened so fast after that. She undid his gunbelt and let it fall to the forest floor. He felt unarmed in every way when she touched him like this--with or without his blasters.

She made short work of his fastener on his pants even in the dark. He heard himself panting in the helmet. What he wouldn’t give for some fresh air right now. He'd never live it down if he managed to pass out right now.

By the time her bare hand had freed him and was working him into a frenzy where all he could feel were lust and want and desire, he’s half out of mind with pleasure. He realizes with alarm how close he is already, and even more alarmedly that in his bliss he had totally forgotten about her. He’d been so consumed by mind numbing pleasure at her touch and listening to her labored breathing he’d blocked out everything else important like his own breathing or her pleasure. What the hell was the matter with him? This was his chance. He wanted to touch her so bad but if he did now, this handsy moment against the tree would be over almost immediately. He’d already lasted longer than he thought he would though and decides it’s a risk he’s willing to take.

His hand rubbed up her thigh over the thick fabric of her pants and she all but bucked against it when he reached where the seams joined between her legs. He managed to get her belt undone and slid his hand into the front of her open pants after he won a hard-fought battle against her buttons. Her pants were so tight, even unbuttoned, that unless she pulled them down it was almost impossible to move, but he managed to get enough room to find what he was seeking. He touched her over her underwear until she was practically riding his hand, before slipping his fingers inside at the frustrated desperate sound she let out. He tried to block out his own impending release to gently stroke her sensitive bundle of nerves until he figured out how much pressure she wanted. She shifted to the left and right to get him exactly where she wanted him, and her chasing her own release on his impossibly wet fingers made him even harder. He was glad he didn’t do this at the beginning. He almost came when he heard her moan and he felt how wet she was as his fingers stretched in the tight space to slip inside her just once before curling forward again to focus on that spot that made her knees buckle. With her pants still on, there was only so much freedom he had to work with. The inspiration was there—the space was not.

Watching her head fall back and her lips part as she breathed heavily in anticipation wasn’t doing anything to keep him from finishing way to soon either, but he didn’t think she’d mind as long as he got her off too. He knew she was close when the pace of her own hand faltered around him in the most wonderful satisfying way as the eager slippery passes of his fingers grew too much and she cursed under her breath before she forgot to breathe entirely.

Getting each other off in the dark was one of the most erotic things he’d ever done and neither one of them had even taken off their pants. There was no way he’d forget this. _Holy fuck_.

The last thing he saw was the sinful smirk she had on her face as she threw him a two-finger salute him with a “see you around” before disappearing into the night.

The next two nights he found it hard to sleep once the sun went down and he and Cara parted ways. He had no idea why.

They’d been showing off for the villagers earlier; sparring and rolling around in the dirt. They had returned from a late night patrol and they passed by an old rarely used barn, laughing and teasing one another. Cara had grabbed him by the belt and drug him inside before closing the door and plunging them into darkness. “Want to go again?”

He didn’t have to think twice. "Want to keep asking stupid questions?" No words were said but they raced to undress each other this time with the added privacy of four walls and a roof. It felt unrushed in this sense, but Cara must have thought otherwise. “Are we doing this standing up or what?” she asked cheekily, when he didn’t move fast enough. The ground was covered in a layer of straw; a fact he discovered when she pulled him willingly down on top of her once they were finally naked.

“It’s dark. Do you have a flashlight?” he asks, gesturing to her pile of clothes and utility belts mixed with his.

“Nope. Nothing, why?”

“You can’t see me and it’s dark,” he explains. “I want to take this off.”

She surprised him though with her response. “Are you sure? You don’t have to.” Her hesitation warmed him. He took it off.

Kissing her while they made love made all the difference. –Sex-- It was _sex_ , he says in his mind for the tenth time. Just blowing off steam. Why did it feel like more than that then? Tasting her lips and her neck was just as amazing and addicting as he feared. Her tongue in his mouth, though insistent, was so much softer than he imagined, and he struggled not to break their kiss to gasp for air when she finally took him inside her. Feeling her face against his and their labored breaths mingling as they moved together made the experience all the more intense. Gods, she was so responsive as he took his time learning what she liked and what she _really_ liked.

 _So, she actually wanted him._ He might finally believe it the way she was clawing at his back and wrapping her legs around him to pull him deeper.

They laughed as they fought for the top spot and he felt no disappointment whatsoever letting her be on top for most of it. At the end she’d pulled him on top of her once more and he was glad since he could control the pace slightly better to hold on a few more precious moments. He couldn’t remember the last time sex had been so fun and intense at the same time. She seemed to know what she was after and he wanted her to get it. He wanted to give it to her.

The hay or straw, _whatever it is_ , is more uncomfortable than he remembers as his senses slowly return to him. There's no blanket, so it’s only their bodies pressed together that keeps them warm. He absolutely cannot allow himself to get used to this, he thinks. Cara is his friend. Neither of them can reach for anything more now, despite how easy it seems to come to them. He knows he should put on his helmet but it feels so stifling all of the sudden after feeling her breath against his face--just another moment of his cheek against the soft skin of her chest can’t hurt. Her breathing is slowing down too and the rise and fall of it evening out is calming.

What is he supposed to say? _Thanks? That was amazing? Better than he imagined?_ He almost snorted at the last one. He could already hear her teasing reply. ‘ _Imagined it a lot, have you?’_ He had been mindlessly smoothing his hand over her bare shoulder until he realized how intimate and the gesture was and forced his hand to stop.

This was a glorious one-off-- _okay two-off_ _thing_ \--but it wasn’t what he came here for. He wasn’t expecting to find someone like her here of all places--someone he didn’t want to leave behind for once. He met countless people over the years and never once did the thought of shipping out in the morning ever give him pause.…..her though…… _she_ gave him pause. It wasn't her body, or her teasing words; it was just something invisible that followed her everywhere and made the sun shine brighter when he was around her. The kid still came first, but having just a few days to feel what it was like to have something good, something he wanted just because he _wanted_ it….feeling like a good man again with a simple life….it was nicer than he could have imagined.

He sat up slightly, knowing he needed to get up and leave before morning sunlight poured through the cracks in this dilapidated structure, but he was unable to make himself get up. 

She sits up slightly beside him though he can't see it. “Stop thinking so loudly, Mando,” she tells him. “Just have an hour to get out of your head. We like each other. Not everything has to be complicated.”

He knew she was giving him an out to write this off if he wanted to, but he didn't really want an out. Cara was as private as he was, and he knew this meant something to her too for things to get to this point of lying naked together to fall asleep. She was right--they liked each other. Trusted each other. Cared abo--- ‘ _Don’t go there, Din’_ , he thinks, mentally scolding himself. Whatever potential there was between them would have to wait until the kid was safe.

His knees were killing him and he knew her back would probably ache the next day as well. Maybe next time they could do this on a bed…..wait….What? _Next time_? He didn’t know how many more days he had remaining before he left Sorgan but he didn’t want to leave as much as he had before. Neither one of them could stay in one place for too long but maybe they could be a stronger force together. He tried to convince himself it was just postcoital bliss talking but he knew it wasn’t.

He _liked_ her: her smart mouth, her stubbornness, her fight for life even though life had been shitty to her, her trust in him and their easy friendship. It meant something to him. They didn't need words or promises when they met to recognize something in the other that called to them. It was the strangest thing. He'd never trusted anyone at first meeting, maybe even years later, but he instantly knew her—knew she was good. 

He decides to take her advice at least for a few more minutes. “Fine. You like to pretend you’re always right. You can be right this time.” He relaxes and takes her back with him.

She yawns loudly and indulgently and he doesn't think he's ever heard that sound from her before. Somehow that vulnerable and involuntary sleepy action strikes a more intimate chord within him than their previous activities. She lazily lists off what’s on the agenda for tomorrow. “We have to load that scrap metal and then I’m going to help disassemble that dam in the smaller of the two rivers. I got to get up early tomorrow, before sunrise. Want me to wake you up or let you sleep?" She asks him. "I'll get ready in the dark and I won't look at you if you want to sleep in.”

He knew she wouldn’t look at him even if the sun managed to come up before she got ready. He could almost picture her shuffling around for her clothes with her back to him. He tried really hard not to imagine seeing her in the morning leaving the barn with straw in her hair and her braid half undone. She might even accidentally grab one of his socks by mistake.

“Wake me up,” he decides. “I need to go collect the kid and find a spare cutting tool to take apart that AT-ST.” 

“Sounds like a plan.” She didn’t say anything else and he heard her breathing even out. She was asleep.

He felt himself drifting off no matter how much he fought it. She and the kid had grown on him and had a hold on him he wasn't expecting, but didn’t regret at all. He finally felt like maybe this is the man he's supposed to be--not living a lonely life of isolation any longer, but living his life with others who cared about him and he cared about in return. He was willing to give it a try at least. 

Spending the days he had left here helping the village with Cara so they'd have a fighting chance and watching the kid run his feet across wet grass instead of durasteel was the best plan he'd had in a long time. Maybe he’d stick around another week just to be sure.

..................

This amazing art was made by [Mandalorianess](https://mandalorianess.tumblr.com/). She's amazing. Check out her other CaraDin edits :)

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading whatever this was. AU shenanigans have been consuming my time, but I wanted to post something before too much time passed. I’d love to hear your thoughts


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